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Hunter S. Thompson is dead


elTee

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This is probably the last place I should post this, but what the hell.. he commited suicide yesterday. The man is (..was) a genuine genius, and I'll miss him. Reflect as you wish.

 

Like most of the others, I was a seeker, a mover, a malcontent, and at times a stupid hell-raiser. I was never idle long enough to do much thinking, but I felt somehow that my instincts were right. I shared a vagrant optimism that some of us were making real progress, that we had taken an honest road, and that the best of us would inevitably make it over the top.

 

At the same time, I shared a dark suspicion that the life we were leading was a lost cause, that we were all actors, kidding ourselves along on a senseless odyssey. It was the tension between these two poles - a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other - that kept me going.

The Rum Diary, Hunter S. Thompson

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Reading his books is often a life-changing experience for people. I recommend them, but they aren't for everybody. Tread with caution...

 

However, he is best known as the guy who wrote "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and the character that Jonny Depp played in the movie was Hunter's alter-ego.

 

There were a couple of other movies based on his life... and a running character in Doonsbury (Uncle Duke) was based on him.

 

He was the leading counter-culture icon for several generations.

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I've never read a full novel of his, but I've followed his articles and read most of "Hey, Rube" and it is very good though it is just a collection of editorials. Here's a quote that he wrote the day of 9/11:

 

"Make no mistake about it: we are At War--with somebody--and we will stay At War with that strange and mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives."

 

Doesn't that quote give you chills? It's scary how true it became. My friend says his favorite of his novels is Kingdom of Fear, which I will probably read now. I feel bad for not having read many of his books before Sunday.

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I recommend The Rum Diary - it's actually one of the best books I've ever read, and until now, the only one of Thompsons' that I've got. I'm going to buy most of his output and a bottle of rum next week... I was planning on doing this anyway (sans the rum) but I feel compelled to now.

 

Just the other day I was saying how much I admired him on my site.. and now this.

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  • 2 weeks later...

They're not saying for sure, but what makes the most sense is that he was getting old and his body was going out. He had gotten a lot of surgery done to his legs and he was trouble getting out at all anymore. And since he was a real hands-on guy, he probably didn't want to die slowly for the next ten years.

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